Planning to do it yourself? Think hard

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/08/2005 (7392 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — What’s the worst thing that can go wrong with a do-it-yourself home project?

Death would be at the top of the list. Less drastic consequences include paying too much for supplies, wasting your time, stressing your family and ending up with third-rate results that actually devalue your home. You might also face a long search for skilled people willing to finish a job you’ve begun badly.

Martin Askew, president of Buckboard Homes, has seen a few potentially lethal do-it-yourself projects. He was called in for a renovation on a house that looked pretty good on the surface. The owners just wanted a new kitchen and an overall updating.

“When we opened the home up, there was 40 years of handyman electrical improvisation. This was one death trap,” says Askew. “Had they moved into that home as it was, there was a great possibility they would have died there.”

He also found a homemade fireplace built by someone who’d overlooked a few key details.

“It was a carbon monoxide manufacturing plant,” says Askew.

Carbon monoxide is heavier than air, Askew points out, so it could easily have slid down the stairs and into a bedroom on the lower level, with potentially deadly results. Askew is sure he and his partner saved lives when they removed that fireplace.

He has a sobering question for everyone who lives in a resale home: How many do-it-yourselfers have worked on your home?

It’s important for do-it-yourselfers to understand their limitations, Askew says.

“They have to know where to draw the line — know when they’re outside their knowledge base.”

In his opinion, a lot of people should “leave the damn tools in the garage” and forget about doing anything more complex than adjusting a bi-fold door.

Fix it, decorate it and renovation shows on TV are inspiring enthusiastic homeowners to try ever more ambitious home improvement projects, he fears.

One of Askew’s pet peeves is TV shows frequently offer advice that isn’t quite complete enough to be truly useful.

He recounts the story of a young woman who scrupulously followed the advice she’d absorbed from a TV show — she requested and received quotations on building a deck from three contractors. She carefully compared the prices and then went with the lowest bid. To celebrate the completion of her new outdoor living space, 30 friends were invited over for a barbecue.

“The next day she noticed the deck had sunk,” says Askew. The price had been attractively low because the builder didn’t bother with a foundation.

“What is the purpose of getting three quotations if the customer has no idea how to read a quotation?” Askew says. All quotations from contractors must be based on identical specifications or the numbers mean nothing.

As for saving money by doing the job yourself or acting as your own contractor –“Save money where?” Askew wonders.

What dollar value can be put on the time and frustration of coming home from a regular job and working a second shift as an untrained tradesman? How can the general public hope to match the prices contractors can get on materials?

In the case of a prolonged amateur kitchen reno, even the price of takeout meals can add up. (Buckboard Homes routinely sets up a makeshift but functional kitchen somewhere in the home for kitchen renovation clients.)

Askew says he’s never found anyone who has saved by doing it themselves. He recently watched an acquaintance try his own kitchen renovation, and it wasn’t pretty.

“He was trying to install granite countertops on old cabinets,” Askew says. “There was a stub wall in the way on the peninsula. He didn’t figure on the electrical having to be moved. He just wanted the stub wall cut off.”

The gables on the cabinets had been butchered — “it looked like they’d used a chainsaw to cut them off.” The kitchen was a mess, but the owner was ready to throw $12,000 worth of granite into it.

Things got worse when the scheduling didn’t work. (Scheduling is one of the things that make contractors worth their money). The kitchen wasn’t ready when the granite arrived, so it was necessary to reschedule the installation and pay for a second visit by scarce trades.

In a whole-home renovation or new house construction, literally hundreds of items might have to be ordered in the right sequence and then completed in another sequence — a tightly choreographed dance — to arrive at a successful conclusion.

In this case, the appliances arrived the same day the hardwood floors were being finished.

“So he’s going to have a finished product under the feet of guys working with a thousand pounds,” says Askew.

When DIYers do recognize they’re struggling with details or not meeting the standard of craftsmanship they dreamed of, it’s sometimes difficult to find a professional who’ll jump in to make corrections and finish off the project.

“We don’t do it. There’s not too many contractors that would,” says Brian Maurer, president of Albi Renova. There are liability issues that could arise later on.

If, for instance, the homeowner decides to frame the basement himself and doesn’t get it straight, all that comes after can also be out of whack — bowing or bulging drywall and baseboards that don’t fit flat against the drywall. One framing flaw can ripple out into several problems. “Who’s liable?” asks Maurer.

If a contractor is going to be responsible for the quality of the finished job, chances are he’ll take it back to square one and start over.

Bottom line? If you don’t have the skills, “Don’t waste your time doing it yourself,” Maurer advises.

Contractors are eligible for discounts on items such as plumbing fixtures, so there’s nothing much to gain by buying them yourself and hiring someone to install them.

“The person would be paying about the same amount as if he hired me to do it. And they’d have to handle the warranties. Why not get a professional to do it? Find a reputable company — and there are guys out there like us who are concerned — and (homeowners) will get value for the money,” says Maurer.

–CanWest News Service